Tuesday, May 30, 2017

In the interest of Disclosure,
I served as the editor for this book. That said, and keeping in mind the
relationship of editors like Maxwell Perkins with their writers (in his case,
no less than Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and, somewhat synchronistically—to use
Jung’s term—Thomas Wolfe), this should not preclude a fair review. Indeed, editors
are reviewing books all the time. The difference is, they have the opportunity
to provide different eyes to the author’s work before the fact, as opposed to reviewers, who do so after the fact (although I have done a
number of pre-publication reviews that precipitated changes before
publication).

But enough of that. I agreed to
the editing contract for the same reason that I am now reviewing Toni Wolff & C. G. Jung—Nan Savage
Healy’s detailed and insightful exploration of Jung’s unsung and nearly
obliterated collaborator shines a powerful light on Jung, whom I, like others,
practically deified as I have made my own journey through Jungian staples such
as Archetypes, Dreams, the Shadow, and Myths.

I have reviewed many books by
Jungian psychologists (e.g., Lawrence Staples and Erel Shalit) and have read
many of Jung’s books. His work is an essential part of my own in Storytelling
and I put him right up there with Joseph Campbell as one of the giants whose
shoulders I stand upon.

An essential question that I
have struggled with in the nearly three years that have elapsed since I first
heard from Nan with a request to edit this book is this: Has my estimation of
Jung decreased, increased, or stayed the same as I have learned about his
relationship with Toni Wolff, who first met Jung as a patient and soon became a
Lover, Muse, and Collaborator? I would say, after careful, continued
reflection: all and none of the above.

My reasoning for this answer
serves as the basis of this review, as I am sure that many of the reviews
written by Jungian analysts and various historians and academics of Toni Wolff & C. G. Jung cover the
nuts and bolts of the psychology and the finer points of who came up with what
theory, who wrote which part of each book or essay, and who we really owe the
credit to. This review is perhaps more personal, which may help this
outstanding book to reach an audience segment it might otherwise miss.

Make no mistake—this is a work
of deep academic excellence. The notes take up 52 pages, and the
acknowledgments illuminate the depth and width of the resources—human and
documentary—that Healy pursued to bring this book to fruition. She spoke with
descendents of Wolff and Jung and went where the winds of inquiry took her.
There is plenty of synchronicity at work, from her first stumbling upon an
essay by Toni Wolff up through the book’s completion and I can tell you that I
edited the book not once, but twice (and I understand considerable work was
done after the fact while adding the 101 images that bring the words to life
and give the reader a different kind of insight into Wolff and Jung), all the
result of Healy’s commitment to tell Toni Wolff’s story as best as she can.

Toni Wolff’s story is very much
inextricable from Jung’s, and from men’s in general. Coming from a wealthy
household, college was not a proper option for her—and her lack of a degree was
something she continually worked to overcome. After the death of her father and
the subsequent responsibility she took for the family’s well-being and
finances, she sought therapy from Jung (who took his own father’s death hard as
well), and he instantly saw her genius. At the time she was a poet and very
much in tune with her dreams. As she moved from patient to lover, muse, and
collaborator, Toni abandoned poetry, focusing on the more concrete world of
psychology. In fairness to Jung, he always regretted her leaving her poetry
behind.

Fairness is a key strength of
this book. It would be easy for Healy to put it all on Jung, to portray him as
an unethical doctor who preyed on his female patients (there were others
besides Toni), ignoring the dangers of Transference for his own selfish
reasons. But she does not. Indeed, the primary reason Jung does not diminish as
a thinker, writer, and artist in my estimation through this journey is because
Nan Savage Healy Humanizes Jung, illuminating his Quests for answers in the
deep void of symbolism and the subconscious, a Quest he inspired me to take
nearly two decades ago.

In line with his Humanness is
Jung’s recognition of the Shadow and the warring aspects of one’s personality. I
have called my own warring halves Joe and Joey since college, a realization I
came to intuitively in a moment of shamanic crisis—it was not until a decade
later, listening to Michael York’s masterful reading of Memories, Dreams, Reflections that I began to understand what was
at work through Jung’s own experiences. It truly changed my life. Since that
time, I have worked through theatre, storytelling, shamanic studies, and
voracious reading and diligent spiritual practice to get to know my Shadow and
integrate the two halves of my personality. To this day, Treaties are broken
and the war ensues again. Studying the Liber
Novus and Black Books and
undertaking similar projects of my own keeps the casualties down and treaties ever
renegotiated. Toni Wolff & C. G. Jung
has been invaluable to that process (see pp. 68 and 74–77).

The one area where I am most
suspect of Jung’s motivations begins to be explored in depth in chapter 5,
“Spiritual Wife.” Some of Toni’s most important contributions to psychology
stem from an essay she wrote called “Structural Forms of the Feminine Psyche,”
in which she outlines four structural forms for the “chief perspectives of
women” (p. 90): Hetaira, Medial, Amazon, and Maternal. Space does not allow me
to define and explicate them… and I could not do better than Healy in doing so.
For my purposes here, it is enough to say that the Medial operates akin to a
Muse for the creative man, while the Maternal is self-explanatory. Here is
where it gets complex. Jung did not believe that one woman could be both his
Muse and the head of his household—his wife Emma served in the role of the
latter, raising their children and overseeing the home, while Toni served as
the Medial. One might bleed this down into the vulgar Madonna and Whore, but
that is impossible to do while absorbing Healy’s portrait of Toni.

Perhaps I am lucky (as was Joe
Campbell with Jean Erdman, although they did not have children)—my own wife has
been both for me (the Medial is a “prophetess and psychic seer,” p. 90;
fittingly, my wife is a psychic medium) and so, for me, Jung’s thesis looks
more like Convenience than Truth. This dual role in one woman, I should say in
fairness, can at times be destructive when we consider Jackson Pollock’s muse
and wife, Lee Krasner or Sylvia Plath to Ted Hughes, although destructive
marriages for artists and poets are not all that unusual. In the case of Jung,
Toni, and Emma, this triangle, which went on for decades, was awkward and
painful for Emma and Toni both.

There is no doubt that Toni
shepherded Jung through dark nights of the soul at her own peril. At one point,
she was determined to marry him, a notion that Jung rejected out of hand. It
could be said that this tumultuous relationship led Toni Wolff to pay the
ultimate price: death by broken heart.

Toni Wolff & C. G. Jung,
like a good analyst, operates on many levels. Healy covers the history of
analytical psychology, from the main ideas to the Clubs and gathering places
funded by wealthy American heiresses as well as illuminating the key phases of
Jung’s career through the contributions of and disagreements with Toni Wolff.
For instance, Toni had no use for Alchemy, and Jung took on another Medial in
order to push that segment of his work forward.

The man who built towers like
Bollingen out of stone as well as scientific and mythological towers out of
sheer intellect and depth journeying was complex and suitably human for the
tasks at hand. Toni Wolff was indispensible to the process. Nan Savage Healy
mediates between the two with the effortless grace that only comes from years
of committed toil.

We should all be thankful that she
stumbled upon that essay by Wolff those many years ago.